


What Nori Doesn't Know, Or Maybe He Does

by SherlockianMystery



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 08:42:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3113375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockianMystery/pseuds/SherlockianMystery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started off as a game "How Much Can You Hide in Nori's Hair?" and then became a challenge, and then really just became a good place to store things that you didn't want to lose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Nori Doesn't Know, Or Maybe He Does

**Author's Note:**

> A friend and I were joking around on facebook and came up with this. It's ridiculous and a bit silly, so if that's not your cup of tea you might want to head elsewhere.

Bilbo wasn't sure exactly when it started, hiding things in Nori's hair, but he had to admit that it was a pretty fun game and something that could keep them entertained and lift their spirits. He does know that it started with a few small things here and there. Coins, beads, acorns, small things that were easy to hide (and not so easy to retrieve), and somehow escalated to the smaller books in his and Ori's collections. Getting the items in was easy, you just had to come up behind him when he was sleeping and push it into the spot you had scouted out earlier in the day. Getting them out, however, was the fun part. It required stealth, and you couldn't do it while Nori was sleeping because he'd feel you rifling around in there and wake himself up just in time to give you a good slap to the hand or face, whichever body part he managed to hit first. No, it also required a bit of cunning, and it had to be said that Bilbo and Ori were the best at retrieving their things, but maybe that was because their books were easier to find than Balin's bag of gold coins or Bofur's carvings.

It took the two of them to secretly sneak back their items, one to grab it from his hair, on the pretense of untangling a knot or pulling out a leaf that had gotten stuck, and the other to distract him with a few questions about his particular set of skills. Bilbo was usually the distraction, as he was able to keep himself talking without getting flustered, something that Ori hadn't quite managed just yet, especially when Nori's eyes narrowed as if he knew something was going on but didn't quite know what exactly it was just yet. Then, once the book had been placed back into the care of Ori, Bilbo would thank Nori for the conversation and wander off, sometimes starting a new conversation with someone else before eventually meeting back up with Ori to discuss what book they would store next. The other dwarves, however, weren't so pleased with the amount of success Bilbo and Ori seemed to be having with storing their items, and would try to switch their items out as well, though later on of course so that Nori didn't become suspicious of just what interest all the rest of the Company seemed to have in his hair. 

Thorin was one of the only dwarves that _wasn't_ involved in the hiding of items, though that didn't mean he was completely innocent. In fact, he spent most of his time on horseback offering bits of advice and challenges under his breath to whomever he was riding next to, his eyes betraying his amusement whenever a plan didn't come to fruition. Often, when Bilbo glanced over at him after a successful snatch and grab with Ori, Thorin was often chuckling to himself and would give them a brief nod of congratulations before heading off to finish whatever task he had started before being distracted by Ori and Bilbo's plan. 

Nori, however, wasn't quite as oblivious to the goings on of the Company as he seemed to be, which became quite obvious the moment that Dwalin ticked him off. One moment they were arguing, and the next Nori had put his hand to his hair and withdrawn a small knife that Dwalin had put there a mere few hours ago. Dwalin looked startled, as did the rest of the group, that Nori seemed to know exactly where it was and who it belonged to, and Nori gave him a small smirk and turned to the rest of the Company.

"Oi, who wants to bid on this beautiful knife, made in Erebor by the finest craftsmen? Only a few gold coins, and more than willing to go to a good home!"

The Company, of course, burst into laughter and a few of the dwarves started making bids, until, that is, Dwalin gave them a glare and they quickly went off in search of jobs to do around camp so as to not to get on his bad side. Bilbo, of course, started laughing so hard that he had to balance himself against Ori in order to stay standing and made a brief bet himself, to which he thought he might have actually won Dwalin's knife if Thorin hadn't passed by, snatching the knife out of Nori's hand and passing it back to Dwalin with a smirk and a quick comment about not angering the Company's resident thief. 

That didn't mean that the hiding game was over, only that it became a challenge to really hide things without anyone, Nori included, noticing. One could only truly know if they were successful when the thief was angry at them, if he pulled out your item and made a show of trying to sell it you had lost, and if he went on his way then you knew that your hiding had been successful, or that the thief liked you. Bilbo and Ori never seemed to have their items up for sale, and it wasn't because Nori didn't know they were there, as he could often be seen pulling one of the books out of his hair and glancing at the title before putting back in it's original spot. This, of course, meant that he had loads to read when trapped in Thranduil's dungeon, as well as having a few weapons already when they eventually made it to Laketown, because apparently once something was stuck in his hair it had to be physically removed by hand and couldn't be just washed out by water. 

Later, after Bilbo had returned to the Shire, Nori would find himself reaching up and pulling out the last book that Bilbo had placed there, spending a few minutes looking at it, maybe even reading it before getting back to work. It was, after all, one of the only things he had left from their journey that didn't remind him of what they had lost on the battlefield, and he never once got the urge to return it (which he took as a good sign that his thieving ways hadn't completely deserted him after he joined Dwalin on the Ereborean guard).


End file.
